Communion on the tongue - different approach

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I was at Mass at our cathedral just now. Here, the archbishop, in accordance with public health guidelines, has limited Mass attendance to 250 per… so there is a blanket dispensation from the obligation. I was one of the 250 at this particular Mass. When it came time for communion, everyone was strongly encouraged to receive on the hand, but if your conscience demands you receive on the tongue, you were accommodated by a separate line with one proficient very careful deacon. Seemed a very reasonable approach.
 
I don’t know. The virus is airborne. It doesn’t require contact. Breath is sufficient.

Also, “conscience demands”? Aren’t we fostering scupulosity?
 
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It is a relatively modern practice to communicate whenever you go to Mass. a century ago this was by no means general practice.
 
It’s not airborne. Coughing and sneezing, yes, as it passes in water droplets… but mostly it’s going to be touch. You touch something and then touch your face.

Unless there’s been new groundbreaking science on this that I’m not aware of? The experts have been saying it’s not airborne.
 
twf said:
I was at Mass at our cathedral just now. Here, the archbishop, in accordance with public health guidelines, has limited Mass attendance to 250 per… so there is a blanket dispensation from the obligation. I was one of the 250 at this particular Mass. When it came time for communion, everyone was strongly encouraged to receive on the hand, but if your conscience demands you receive on the tongue, you were accommodated by a separate line with one proficient very careful deacon. Seemed a very reasonable approach.
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That sounds like a very common sense solution.
 
A great many people in Spain seem to have been infected at the open air March 8 Women’s Day rallies.
 
That doesn’t prove anything. People sneeze. People touch stuff. People touch their faces. People forget to wash their hands. It doesn’t take much.
 
Coughs, sneezes and breathing are the primary ways it is spread. It is very contagious.
 
The experts have been saying it is not airborne. Can you provide a reference? But yes, it’s very contagious. It doesn’t take much… a passing touch on a door handle, and a unconscious brushing of your eyelid.
 
You are right. It is not considered airborne according to technical definition. That would mean it can stay in the air for hours. But if someone has the virus I would not want my fingers anywhere near their nose, breath, mouth and especially tongue. Nor would I want to be the next person after them.
 
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Really? That was only 7 days ago, and doesn’t it take at least 5 days to manifest symptoms? Further, if people are showing symptoms now when the incubation period runs up to nearly 2 weeks, isn’t it possible they were infected before those rallies?
 
Micro particles are in the air temporarily through sneezes, coughs and breathing. If their breath can reach you the virus can.
 
I would think so. At least that is what I was trying to say.

And then it would only take one person to infect the minister who passes it on.
 
The Kirkland rest home noted that of those who died, several went from no symptoms to dead within a matter of hours. Again, all very elderly.
 
stpurl said:
Really? That was only 7 days ago, and doesn’t it take at least 5 days to manifest symptoms? Further, if people are showing symptoms now when the incubation period runs up to nearly 2 weeks, isn’t it possible they were infected before those rallies?
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The Kirkland rest home with 26 deaths, 13 confirmed viral, noted that some of those who died went from no symptoms to dead within hours, not days.

Sorry, duplicate.
 
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twf said:
When it came time for communion, everyone was strongly encouraged to receive on the hand, but if your conscience demands you receive on the tongue, you were accommodated by a separate line with one proficient very careful deacon.
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That’s pretty much what I’m doing - not so much a separate line as telling them to receive at the end, and to kneel since that makes it easier for me to avoid touching part of their mouths. The directive from our Bishops’ Conference is that everyone should receive on the hand but, at the same time, I appreciate that those who receive on the tongue feel strongly about it and so it’s not exactly easy for them to suddenly switch to receiving on the hand.
 
Shakuhachi said:
I don’t know. The virus is airborne. It doesn’t require contact. Breath is sufficient.
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No, “airborn” does not mean that breath alone is sufficient. The vector is atomized droplets from coughing or sneezing, not vapor from the lungs.

Wash your hands well and often. Don’t rub your eyes, don’t pick your nose. Minimize contact with things like door knobs, handrails, hymnals, collection baskets or the like. If you’re coughing or sneezing, wear a face mask.
 
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it is airborne because you can catch it without touching anything. just by breathing.
 
I am becoming less and less persuaded that it cannot be spread by breath in this kind of close proximity, with the minister’s hand near the communicant’s mouth. I am not assisting at Mass for the duration — I am dispensed from the Mass obligation — but if I did attend, I would simply not receive communion at all, until this thing blows over. I do not do CITH.
 
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